Sunday, March 12, 2023

Dispatches from Planet Stupid

So, I called in a prescription on Friday, March 10th, at Noon.  Pharmacy tech was a competent person and said prescription would be ready by 6pm (on the 10th.) I told the PT that I knew the prescription would be very expensive and please fill it.

Wake up on March 11th (Saturday) and while walking Kegan the Wonderdog for his first constitutional of the day, called the Pharmacy, as neither Mrs. Andew nor I have received a text message stating that the prescription was ready (which, of course, should have come in on the 10th some time before 6pm.)  Got a different Pharmacy Tech and this one was a bumbling fool. Told her name of patient, DOB, her foot size (for you Monty Python fans) and the name of the prescription. 

She could not find any filled prescription for the drug in question, and spent a minute or so stammering something unintelligible.  I kind of figured out that something was wrong when she asked if Mrs. Andrew had insurance and if so, did it cover prescriptions?  

I asked PT-idiot if there was any insurance on file, and did it show coverage? PT-idiot mumbled something affirmative at which point I flatly stated that, yes, we know the medication is expensive, that we are either in the first stage of paying out the nose or in the donut-hole or something and that, yes, we want the prescription filled.  Please do so, yada yada, when will it be ready?

PT-idiot said it would be ready in an hour (time was 12:45pm.)  Yay, me.

Head out to the store at 3pm knowing what was going to happen, as, yes, we haven't received a text message saying the blood of the first born needed to be on our door for us to receive the precious med.  And stop off at the Pharmacy, some 2.25 hours after the very long phone call and 1.25 hours after the promised time of the med to be finished and ready.  Guess what?  They haven't filled it and asked if I wanted to come back tomorrow or Monday?  Since this is one of those 'restricted' meds and can't be had in large quantities, limited to 30 days supply only refillable after 28 days type of meds, no, I won't wait for yet another day (called on Friday, supposed to be ready on Friday, not ready on Friday, not ready on Saturday, promised Saturday, so BP is, eh, a little heightened by now.) "Can you come back in 20 minutes?"  My response was "20 minutes or sometime after an hour or so after you promised again?" At which time the pharmacy manager came over, apologized, and said, yes, the meds will be ready, so sorry..

Shop, check out, wander over, poof, meds are ready. Yay me.

Would be bad if this was a once-of experience.  It is not.  Almost every month.  ALMOST EVERY MONTH.  And this is at a good pharmacy with a much-better reputation than any other pharmacy within reasonable distance.

To make matters worse, the meds in question are very expensive.  Why?  Because they are a name-brand and not a generic.  Why?  Well, because Mrs. Andrew was on a less expensive, generic of a mildly addictive similar class drug that lasted 12 hours before bad things happened (withdrawal symptoms) and was prescribed 3 times daily as the effective lasting power was 8-10 hours. Because it was midly addictive the Insurance Company was worried about the addictive powers of it, so they replaced it with..  a new wunderdrug is 3-4 times more expensive, is very addictive, it lasts 9 hours max and severe withdrawal symptoms occur after 10 hours.  And is subject to periodic shortages, like none available.

Even worse, due to Fed Regs under the Affordable Care Act (why are leftist programs always named opposite of what they actually are?) electronic prescriptions for this type of drug are only allowed.  So the doc's office sends the EP to a single pharmacy.  SINGLE PHARMACY.  And cannot, CANNOT, be transferred to another pharmacy, even if in the same chain.  So if X pharmacy has the prescription is out of the drug that causes bad withdrawal symptoms if patient is out, they can't transfer the script to another pharmacy.  Nor can Pharmacy Y which has said drugs actually physically transfer drugs to Pharmacy X.  I'd use a common abbreviation for Copulate My Life, but that's crude, so I'll just say, Yay me.

Planet Stupid Indeed.

To top it off, as I was going into said building, there was a young couple with face masks and latex gloves coming in.  The male was one of those who wore a bushy beard under his mask. (Quick History Fact:  Beards went away for various reasons around WWI time.  The big one was that beards interfered wth getting a good gas seal using gas masks. Hmmm....) Wandering around the store shopping I came upon said couple again and again.  This couple was doing the 'lean away from the unclean' thingy and doing their very best to not breathe  or touch or be touched by the unclean.

By the time I wandered out of the store after dealing with the pharmacy, I saw said couple leaving.  At which point the male stopped by the water fountain, pulled his mask down, and then proceeded to slobber a bunch of water up and around his furry face. 

So scared to breathe other people's air, to touch other people, but will drink from a public fountain?  Heck, I'm one of those 'pure bloods' (the very unvaxxed by Covidiocracy) and I don't drink from a public fountain.  

Planet STUPID.

To top it off, I make pizza for Mrs. Andrew every Saturday.  Gluten-free thick crust pizza, comes out soft and chewy and wonderful.  Every Saturday for over 4 years.  Perfect every time. (insert foreboding music...)

So today, make the dough, bake the plain dough for 14 minutes (gluten-free dough is weird.)  Comes out slightly brown, looks good.  Put the toppings on, sauce, cheese, pepperoni and pineapple (she likes it, so because Mrs. Andrew, it's okay for me.)  Cover with foil (because gluten-free dough is weird) and bake for 30 more minutes.

Pull it out, cut it, serve it, Mrs. Andrew says something's weird.  Instead of the cheese being almost a single molten blob, the cheese is still mostly unmelted. Pizza is edible, but not perfect.

So I check the settings on the oven (I just turned off the oven, I did not turn the temp down.)  Temp is set at 400, check.  Doorseal is good, check. Test run the oven by turning it on and checking in 10 minutes, oven internal is at or around 400, check.  What went wrong?  Dunno, but Planet Stupid, right?  Yay me.

It's been that type of day.

The refrigerator works fine, though.

Yay me.

Some days...


So some music.  Group is Estampe, a European music group that does real medieval music, or at least as close to real as possible because musical scoring as we know it wasn't really formalized until around the time of Bach, JS Bach.

Stuff like this is what I listen to to calm me down on days when nothing else, ELO, Bach organ music, Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass, won't.  So here it is...

Palastinalied - Estampe
Album - Crusaders In Nomini Domini
Gee, it's about going down to the Holy Lands
Duh.

The translation of said German grumbling is:
Now my life has gained its meaning
since these sinful eyes behold
the sacred land with meadows greening
whose renown is often told.
This was granted me from God:
to see the land, the holy sod,
which in human form He trod.

 
Splendid lands of wealth and power,
I’ve seen many, far and near,
yet of all are you the flower.
What a wonder happened here!
That a maid a child should bear,
Lord of all the angels fair,
was not this a wonder rare?

 
Here was He baptized, the Holy,
that all people might be pure.
Here He died, betrayed and lowly,
that our bonds should not endure.
Else our fate had been severe.
Hail, O cross, thorns and spear!
Heathens, woe! Your rage is clear.
 

Out of pity for us,
He suffered here the cruel parting.
Out of pity for us
He, the Almighty, allowed cursing.
For us to escape misery,
it is an immeasurable prodigy,
more than any other prodigy.
 

Then to hell the Son descended
from the grave in which He lay,
by the Father still attended,
and the Spirit whom none may give a name:
in one are three,
an arrowshaft in unity.
This did Abraham once see.
 

When He there defeated Satan,
ne’ er has kaiser battled so,
He returned, our ways to straighten.
Then the Jews had fear and woe:
watch and stone were both in vain,
He appeared in life again,
whom their hands had struck and slain.
 

Thereafter he walked this land,
for forty days: then He ascended,
from whence His Father had him on errand.
His Spirit, may He protect us from the wicked,
He at once sent back down.
Holy is this very town,
its name, is by God known.
 

To this land, so He has spoken,
shall a fearful judgment come.
Widows’ bonds shall then be broken
and the orphans’ foe be dumb,
and the poor no longer cower
under sad misuse of power.
Woe to sinners in that hour!
 

All the judgement of an earthly court,
will give no man respite from accusation,
for He will want at once to sort,
for the Last Day annunciation:
whoever leaves a single sin,
unatoned here, how bereft he will stand facing Him,
where he has neither surety nor kin.
 

Christians, heathen, Jews, contending,
claim it as a legacy.
May God judge with grace unending
through his blessed Trinity.
Strife is heard on every hand:
ours the only just demand,
He will have us rule the land.
 

Now do not ignore,
what I have recited.
My wish was to briefly explore,
the discourse and to you I have presented,

all the wonder that God has unfurled,
upon man in this world,
they began and ended here in this emerald.


31 comments:

  1. I am glad you survived a stress filled day.

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    1. Me, too. A while ago, when Mrs. Andrew's brain blew, one of the attending docs did a stress study on me. And then asked why I wasn't the one with the blown brain. Eh, stress, without it how would I know I live?

      One time Mrs. Andrew was agreeing with some talking (female) head about how women have such stressful lives yada yada yada and how they have to lie about everything, men are so lucky, yada yada yada. So I disagreed with Mrs. Andrew. And then chronicled all the stress and bullscat I deal with on a daily basis that she has no idea is going on (besides the stuff she does.) You know, typical man-stress. She was flabbergasted.

      As to the 'women are better liars' line, well, I dissuaded her o"f that statement. Like I pointed out how many men, once they reach a certain point in their lives, usually once all the children are out of the house and reasonably successfully adulting, say "Copulate this" and 'become' gay or leave or quit their jobs. And how many men ride their jobs into the grave because they are providing for the family and only after the poor schmuck is dead does the family discover that the guy hated his job, hated some/most/all of his co-workers, and just wanted to run a small engine repair or raise orchids or some other job that didn't pay big bucks or even reasonable bucks but he did it to bring big or reasonable bucks into the house.

      Stress. Eh.

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  2. Any chance of telling the prescribing doctor that because of the continuing problems with the non-generic med that you'd like to go back to the mild addictive generic med? I'm surprised at the number of masks I see out now. Especially like the solitary driver wearing a mask.

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    1. I wore a mask for the first time in 6 months or more yesterday. Wife has come down with COVID and I am still testing clean. My 5 vaccinations must have worked, test was wrong, the 2 times earlier I have had COVID have given me immunity, I have just gotten lucky this time or all of the above. Went to the grocery store and decided to wear the mask just to add a little extra protection for everyone else. A little since during CBRN class I remember anything less Thant MOPP4 is worthless for a virus. Oh well. DOn't let things like this get you down. You can fight against the current or just float along with it, current does not care one way or the other.

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    2. Nope. Insurance company won't budge. Tried and tried. Which sucks. Dammit.

      And, yes, still so many masks out there. Especially once even the eneMedia started publishing the truth about the masks and how they are contributing to the illness of the wearers. All just like Dr. Fauci stated in his paper on the effects of mask-wearing and the Spanish Influenza, you know, published back in the 80's...

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  3. I'm surprised it's not called the Peoples' Affordable Care Act. But you're right, Commies gotta Commie.

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    1. And National Socialists gotta national socialize.

      Every day the 'somedude's gonna flip and comes the revolution' gets closer and closer. Like the relevations from the Jan6th video evidence, you know, all the stuff that proves it was all a sham, then there's the hidden emails that prove the FedGov was behind a lot of the 'insurrection' and behind the fake plaque (yes, real illness, made worse and more spectacular by FedGov lying and cheating...)

      Gah, seems most conspiracy theories should just be called 'previews of coming attractions.'

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    2. Just call it what it is: Obamacare!

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    3. During COVID, I had ample time to read Daniel Defoe's "Journal of the Plague Year" (1665, and this was a real one). The measures adopted by doctors and authority (masks, lockdowns, etc.) were almost identical to the COVID measures. Like the medical profession haven't had any new thoughts since then.

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    4. Being a student of history, I was fully expecting the appearance of plague doctors with the leather bird's beak stuffed with scented flowers and potpouri.

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    5. The one positive thing those old docs did (inadvertently) was to prescribe burning sulfur, gunpowder, or other noxious things to purify the air in a house. This probably helped to clear out or kill the rats and fleas carrying the Plague.

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    6. It also probably chased flies and other flying insects away, thus reducing the transportation of other illnesses from one person to another.

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  4. When I wake up with the sunrise and see green (or blue, as opposed to brown), I thank G-d first and then tell myself, "Be grateful for small favors."
    The refrigerator's working: hurrah!

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    1. When I wake up and am in pain, I know I am alive.

      And when I wake up and have to hock a chunk of lung butter, I know I am alive.

      Seriously, since maybe 7 years old, if I don't hurt and my breathing is perfect and I don't have crap in my lungs and throat to hack up, I really do wonder (until the brain defogs) if I've slipped this mortal coil.

      Like when the Doc asks "Are you in any pain?" And then is surprised when I say "Yes." Question should be, "Are you in any new and additional pain that you aren't used to?" Same with breathing difficulties. Gee, it's prime allergy season, ya think?

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  5. "And a fun time was had by all!" I sometimes wonder if the health care profession is set up to make people say, "Fonicate upon it!" and give up. My Lady Wife is on a medicine that, per month without insurance would be about $900 (one shot once a week). With insurance for a while it was $42 per mensem, then we fell into the Dreaded Doughnut Hole (DDH) and it went to $192 per mensem. Doc would prescribe 3 months at a time, which we couldn't do, but the pharmacy could break it into one month packs. Now Something Has Changed and the 3 months, or one month, was $4, and now is $0. Head pharmacist saw one of the underlings ringing it up, mentioned to the underling that my Lady Wife took it only one month at a time. Lady Wife said, "This is zero dollars." "OH! That makes a big difference!!" said the head pharmacist.

    I'm certain we could dig through the reams of archana we get every month and figure out What Changed, but is it really worth it?

    An aside. Whenever Something Changes we get a letter. Usually just one page. With that one page are about 7 pages advising us of that other languages we may select for future notifications, 2 pages telling us of how to get the information by phone and use this number for hearing impaired, and 3 pages informing us of our privacy rights.

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    1. Yeah. LIke when Turnip Brain was inaugerated and immediately cancelled Trump's affordable medicine plan. Prices went up bigly on everything not generic, especially insulin. Which hit us bigly. Now that Turnip Brain has done the same thing as Trump (suspiciously, right before the November stealection of 2022) the PharmTech did the same thing, "Oh, look, how expensive it was and how cheap it is now." Yeah, right PT, because now it is only affordable whereas it was a big chunk of our budget.

      Ah, the first of the year drug prices and the dreaded donut hole. Last year we skated most of that because wife had surgeries and we burned through the co-pay by the end of January. Yay us.

      Been dealing with this for a long time. People say "You're making decent money, where's it all going?" We don't smoke, drink, do illegal drugs, don't fund terrorists, don't shoot, don't travel, don't party, don't have a boat or a plane or a passel of kids and relatives we're supporting. Nope, we're just supporting the Medical Industry. Yay us.

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  6. I fainted last week, ambulance, ... Doctors ... it could have been, or that, or the other, or .... Bottom line, do NOT miss taking my thyroid supplement. Oh, why did you stop taking Drug1 (I'd used for thirty years without this problem) and now take Drug2? Supposedly better? Hmmm; endocrinology is not medicine, it is a black art -- there will be conversations about this change, you may be changing back.

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    1. The thing is, with hypothyroidism, Armour Thyroid, which is basically ground-up pig thyroid, is the best medicine. It's what used to be available before modern thyroid medicine. It used to be cheap as all get out, as it's just a byproduct of the slaughter and processing of pigs (thus Armour.) It's what all the rich people use, like Hillary C. But because it's not 'modern' and 'artificial' it isn't considered a good drug by insurance companies. You know, the same insurance companies that will cover holistic medicine, chiropracty and medical marijuana.

      Can not make this stuff up. Planet Stupid.

      Wife used to be on Armour Thyroid. Her body loved the stuff. But then the insurance companies stopped covering it, she stopped working 60-80 hours and we couldn't afford it, and the Affordable Care Act came around which basically stopped all doctors who provide care under Medicare to stop prescribing it. So back to the artificial stuff that doesn't work so well.

      For all y'all out there who aren't up on Thyroid meds, a functioning thyroid produces 4 hormones. T1, T2, T3 and T4. T3 allows the body to absorb T4 which does most of the heavy lifting of the thyroid hormones. Without T3, T4 doesn't do it's job. So most doctors prescribe synthetic T3. Which is okay, unless one's thyroid is so screwed that it doesn't produce T4. So throwing gobs of T3 into one's system doesn't solve everything, only if there is T4 available. So there are artificial T3s and T4s available. Docs love prescribing T3s and grudgingly, even with lab tests confirming no to low levels of T4, prescribe T4.

      Notice something weird in the above paragraph? 4 Thyroid hormones, only of which doctors are concerned with 2 of them. Well, what about T1 and T2? Doctors and the medical profession as a whole discount the existence of T1 and T2. Because the body produces so much useless stuff, right?

      So there are people who's thyroid is midly screwed, but they produce acceptable levels of T4 and need artificial T3 proscribed.

      There are people out there who's thyroid are mostly screwed who don't produce T3 nor T4 so artificial T3 and T4 are prescribed.

      Then there are people out there who's thyroid is totally screwed and for all purposes dead or actually dead and no thyroid hormones are produced. So the medical community prescribes.... only two thyroid hormones, T3 and T4. Because T1 and T2 supposedly don't do anything. These poor people (poor because truly or mostly dead thyroid means person has a metric-crapton of endrocrin issues all related to... the thyroid hormones and thus are spending huge vast sums of money to pay for meds and treatments and doctors for all the issues and problems (diabetes, various immune deficiencies and organ failures and such)) are the people who benefit most from Armor Thyroid, which, since it's ground up pig thyroid, has all four of the thyroid hormones in it.

      Now, Armor Thyroid, because of all hormones, works on all thyroid hormone issues. There's less issues with the body if one has elevated thyroid hormone levels (hyperthyroidism) but one has to really be elevated before hyperthyroidism becomes an issue. On the other hand, low levels of thyroid hormones (hypothyroidism) are very issues, like just a smidge too little T3 and you don't uptake T4 and we're not even talking about T1 and T2 because, according to the brains, they don't do anything.

      So, of course, the least expensive to produce thyroid drug, Armor Thyroid, is also the one that is not covered by insurance. Brilliant move there, FDA and FedGov Healthcare. Sooo glad you all really care about 'science.'

      See? Planet Stupid.

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    2. THANK YOU, Beans. I've read pages and pages and pages trying to understand this. Finally, it begins to make sense.

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    3. Slight correction. T3 is converted to T4, so if you don't make T3 you can't make T4. Otherwise...

      And, of course, what's the remedy for Hyperthyroidism? Flouride. Why? Because it kills the thyroid, and you carefully dose the thyroid with low levels of flouride until the thyroid values are within an acceptable range. What's been in most municipal water systems since the 50's? Flouride. What's been increasing greatly since the 50's? Hypothyroidism. But there's no connection, it's all conspiracy theories, please put your tinfoil hat on, thank you for not noticing the man behind the curtain, move it along, nothing to see...

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    4. Beans,
      I don't get that last. if the remedy for Hyperthyroidism is Flouride and it's been in the water since the 50's why has hypothyroidism still increasing greatly" It would seem to me that it would either be decreasing or that Flouride has no effect on that. But...I'm not a Doctor nor played one on TV, so I'm probably reading that wrong or missing something.

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    5. The more thyroid function is diminished, the more one goes from Hyperthyroidism (overactive thyroid) to Hypothyroidism (underactive thyroid.) So to fix a hyper or overactive thyroid, one slowly administers low levels of flouride until thyroid values come down to the 'normal' range. Keep administering flouride and you go from 'normal' values to low or no thyroid values. So hypothyroidism or underactive thyroid rates took a sharp increase once flouride became part of one's daily drink.

      Say you're in a plane called MyBody. Your thyroid is the fuel controller. If the thyroid is wide open, or hyper, you burn all your fuel and go real fast. If your thyroid is closed down, you starve your engine and crash (which is why lots of hypothyroid people are fat, because their body, no matter how much diet and exercise is done, is 'starved' for thyroid fuel.) Flouride messes with the thyroid, or fuel regulator, and stops it running as much. Clogs it, throttles it back, whatever. Do it carefully, the throttle/fuel control works and you fly. Close it down, you fall.

      There is a weird little organ. It controls a lot of functions in the body, directly and indirectly.

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  7. I have found that Erfa natural thyroid from Canada works best as I can dissolve it under my tongue and bypass the liver. Had to be really assertive with my doctor to write the script. Pay out of pocket at dollar a day. T4 converts to T3, btw. Synthroid is T4 only.

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    1. Er, yeah, got the conversion wrong, but still.

      We can get Armor Thyroid for about a dollar to 2 bucks a day but the problem is finding a doctor who will be willing to help titrate the correct dose. When synthetic T4 and T3 are dollars a month, on top of all the other meds, it gets expensive. Even more so the cost of the doc who only takes cash.

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    2. Admittedly, back when we had a doctor who would prescribe Armour Thyroid, $60 a month for a prescription was big bucks. Now that we can afford Armour, we can't find a doctor to prescribe it.

      Oh, if only we were as evil and rich as the presidential family from 1994 to 2000.

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  8. Worked in the medical field for 26 years, retired in 2020. There is just as much honesty and integrity in that field as in the used car business. The only difference is that the used car dealers don't pretend that what they are doing is for your own good.

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    1. The level of chicanery, fraud, outright worship of not-science in the medical field has been and will be a continued problem.

      Like, oh, say, every 20 years or so the concepts laid down by Dr. Lister and others in maintaining physical cleanliness (wash your damned hands, with water and soap, between patients) comes up because large numbers of patients start to die from no real reason except infections passed by health care workers from one patient to another.

      Personally, the first real 'proof' I knew the Scamdemic was in fact a scam and not-science was when all of us proles had to mask and stand 6' apart while actual doctors and nurses would come into the local supermarket in a gaggle, still wearing their dirty scrubs and shoes and obviously not had taken decontamination showers. Yet we had to obey the dictats of our dear leaders...

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  9. Well, there's only a couple more appliances in your kitchen that could have problems, so it can't continue too much longer! Ugh. Sorry man. I've had a similar problem with filling those restrictive Rx's- sent to one pharmacy (they don't take Tricare). Sent to another (they're out of the Rx), sent to a third, but they're closing soon. Glad it worked out.

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    1. At least we here in the Free State of Florida haven't driven pharmacies out of business, though leftist poopholes like Orlando, Miami and Gainesville are trying.

      We figure the next appliance purchase will be a new range, followed by a new-new dishwasher. I've already started looking. Depending on what taxes look like, we may proactively strike.

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    2. While here in the Horrible State of California, they're trying to ban gas ranges!

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  10. A different Bach https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1prweT95Mo0

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